Uniporc Ouest, which weighs and classifies 90 percent of pigs in France, chose SAS® Visual Analytics to communicate the results of its analysis of 20 million hogs to the entire industry – almost 8,000 breeders, 75 cooperatives and 26 pork-processing facilities.

Founded in 1973 to improve ethical standards in weighing and classifying pork carcasses, Uniporc Ouest sits at the center of transactions between pork producers and breeders. It determines the weight and the muscle ratio of the parts for each hog and communicates the information – collected in complete transparency – to the industry. That’s where SAS Visual Analytics helps Uniporc Ouest.

"Classifying almost 20 million animals a year creates a huge database that links each animal with its owner. This represents around €2.7 billion per year. We cannot run the risk of being wrong," said Pascal Lemee, Manager of Statistical Services and R&D at Uniporc Ouest. "We need to provide reliable results to the breeders, because they are paid based on the calculations we perform on animals they send to the slaughterhouse."

The calculations, database and reporting are the main activity of Uniporc Ouest, which provides decision support to the pork industry. With SAS Visual Analytics, the organization generates reports for breeders and the cooperatives they represent, as well as for pork-production facilities. The information is also sent to various national and European agencies, making it an international reference database.

The route to data visualization

Uniporc Ouest has long used powerful SAS statistical solutions running on UNIX servers and a real-time data warehouse, allowing it to instantly evaluate any changes in production data. SAS Visual Analytics extends this existing infrastructure, with all the work done upstream, to provide high-quality reports via a tablet or browser.

"When we discovered SAS Visual Analytics, we realized we could offer our in-house decision makers, as well as our customers, a very fluid solution for exploring information," said Lemee. "We live in a world where information is often represented in just two dimensions. SAS Visual Analytics is like the transition from photography to cinema: You become the director of the film you want to see. This is both beautiful and highly useful."

With data visualization, users no longer waste time trying to understand the data. The interface lets them move from one entity to another, choosing the desired granularity and indicators to compare. Users quickly see how results change over time, simply by touching a tablet or exploring via a web browser.

"The majority of our breeders are undertaking improvement initiatives relating to genetics, feed, etc. They need this data to optimize both their costs and the quality of the meat," said Lemee. "Allowing our end users to benefit from the power of SAS Visual Analytics is therefore important and strategic. It's the future that Uniporc Ouest wants for cooperatives and breeders in this industry."

Launched in mid-2012, SAS Visual Analytics has already been deployed by more than 1,500 companies worldwide, including almost 80 French projects.